Leaderboard

Greetings Envoys, We want to take a moment to thank you for your continued reports, feedback, and suggestions. Your insights are valuable to us, and we appreciate the time and effort you put into sharing your experiences with us. Our team is committed to ongoing support, and we’re always looking for ways to improve. Your input is key to help us refine and expand Avowed, and we are excited to keep rolling out updates. Within the next few weeks, we are going to be releasing a roadmap that will go over some of the plans we have that will be coming to the game over the upcoming year, so keep your eyes peeled! Thank you for being part of our community—we appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more with you in the future! — The Avowed Team Community Requested Features The player will now receive an additional talent point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Players with save files past those levels will receive the additional points. High Contrast Documents: New option increases font size and applies bold styling to all documents, tutorials, in-game pop-ups, and the ledger's quest tab. Walk Toggle: Players using mouse and keyboard can now toggle between walking and running. HUD Customization: HUD Toggle Keybind: A new keybind (default: Backslash) hides all HUD elements for cleaner screenshots. HUD Opacity Slider: Adjust the transparency of the HUD to your preference. Camera & Compass Options: Third-Person FOV Slider: Added to Graphics Settings. Static Compass Option: Players can now lock the compass to always point North instead of rotating. Controller & Input Improvements: Full support for customizing controller keybinds. Crashes & Major Issues Game Stability Fixes: Fixed a rare crash when switching music during level transitions. Xbox App (PC) Launch Crash Fixed: No longer crashes with error 0xc0000005. Fixed a save data issue causing crashes related to encounter spawning enemies with save/loading. Resolved a Fast Travel crash that could sometimes occur. Addressed a rare crash affecting ROG Ally and Intel-integrated laptops. Main menu frame rate is now capped to prevent crashes and hardware issues. Quests & Dialogues Quest Progression Fixes: The "Quest Available" icon for Ranger Verano no longer appears after the quest becomes inaccessible. "The Finer Things in Battle" quest now triggers reliably and will retroactively complete for players who already met its requirements. Attacking the xaurips in Dehengen’s cabin before the "Find Her Cabin" objective now properly progresses the quest. "Our Dreams Divide Us Still" – Combat at Mount Forja now consistently ends to advance the quest. "Dawntreader" quest fix: Now properly turn-inable to Ofryc even if Kai and Marius are not in the party. "Elder Offerings" quest fix: Now properly resolves if the player both paid for the stolen food and returned it. "Boundaries of Antiquity" quest fix: Prevented an issue where players could skip a required conversation. "An Untimely End." - Ygwulf and the rebels no longer become hostile after sparing him. NPC & Conversation Adjustments: Fixed Adelarro and opponents failing to appear if Dreamthralls were killed before starting a side quest. Amalia will now always give you the key to her camp’s chest when speaking with her. Constable Hajime now correctly rewards players for bounties even if "Heart of Valor" isn’t completed. Marius’s Training Offer: His training offer is now more accessible in conversations. Conversations will no longer drop unexpectedly if enemies detect the player while in dialogue. Restartable Dialogues: Players can now restart conversations with: The illusion in the "Face Your Fears" quest (Shatterscarp). Runyd the watcher if dialogue ended prematurely. Ranger Casagrada in "Steel Resolve" after progressing past "Ancient Soil." Systems & Gameplay Improvements Combat & Enemy Behavior: Arrow Decals Improved: More visible in XSX Performance mode for "The Wasteland Courier" quest. Pistols now hit targets more reliably. Companions with the Shocked status effect no longer electrocute the player when nearby. Enemies react more reliably to arrows impacts. Ranged enemies are less confused when the player moves in and out of cover. Spells & Abilities: Essence cost reductions now properly apply and no longer prevent spellcasting. Fixed cases where totem effects would stop working after conversations or cutscenes. "Into the Fray" ability can now be canceled into other actions sooner, improving combo potential. Quest & Loot Fixes: Fast Travel is now disabled during certain animations to prevent getting stuck when quest items are consumed before progression. If Old Nuna was defeated but the bounty quest didn’t progress, returning to the location now correctly updates the quest. If Belderreno was defeated but no bounty trophy was received, players can now revisit the bounty location to find the trophy. Loot in the Yellowband area no longer falls into the environment, preventing collection issues. Controls & Performance: Mouse 4/5 buttons can now be bound to actions. Optimized elemental accumulation effects for better performance. Optimized the Tebaru Sanakis spirit visuals to improve performance. Reducing VO volume now also reduces reverb/echo for characters. Upscaling no longer defaults to DLSS every time the game is launched. Collision & Environmental Fixes: Adjusted Eothasian temple collision to prevent going out of bounds. Doors at Naku Tedek now correctly unseal when reloading a save if combat was already completed. Fixed rock collision near the Strangled Adra in Dawnshore. Wall textures in Emerald Stair Pargrunen Cache now render properly. Bug Fixes & Miscellaneous General Stability & Fixes: Resolved issues with respawning enemies, such as the Sporeking reappearing after being killed. Fixed unkillable Dreamthralls outside of Thirdborn. Fixed an issue where Ryngrim's rotating wheel would shift when the game was out of focus. UI & Localization Fixes: Gjeda’s Journal no longer contains duplicate entries when playing in French. The description for the food item Saucco now displays correctly in all languages. Medical Supplies quest item now has the correct icon. Navigation & World Interactions: The player can no longer become stuck in the Cistern after dying in combat with Ygwulf. Sliding under obstacles now works properly. The player can now properly talk to Ambassador Hylgard, and others if combat previously interrupted a quest-related conversation. Sargamis no longer gets stuck when walking toward the lever in Eothasian Temple. Even more fixes and Improvements! We had so many fixes in this patch, that we ran over the character limit for some of our platform's patch note features. So, here are even more fixes that went into 1.3. Content Fixes NOTE: This content section is full of story spoilers! Readers beware! Global Changes Adjusted collision on all winch assets to improve performance. Centered the UI indicator on each illusory object. Character creation options now have consistent translations in Polish. Marius's offer to train the player is now more easily accessible through conversation. The Ledger's Documents tab no longer displays debug text on the header for Lore while playing in French. Tuned variables for tracking the player's influence on The Voice to improve reactivity. Fort Northreach: Cleaned up rocks and sand assets to blend together better. Fixed multiple issues in Polish translation of documents at Fort Northreach. Improved camera framing in the conversation with Steadman Ralke at Fort Northreach. Removed parkour from certain rock formations around Fort Northreach to prevent players from accidentally getting out of bounds and falling through the world. Updated settings on rocks in the ocean to prevent players from getting stuck out of bounds. Dawnshore Added ambience SFX to a room that was missing it in Dawnshore. Addressed rendering issues on various props used in Dawnshore, including wicker baskets, window frames and glass, cobwebs, hanging water plants, book piles, swinging trap logs, beige curtains, red curtains, iron curtain rods, and bougainvillea plants. Adjusted camera framing in conversation with Dagherda in Dawnshore. Bright flash of light no longer appears in cutscene during the quest "Dawntreader". Changed collision settings in Eothasian temple to prevent players from going out of bounds. Dream conversations in Dawnshore now use the correct gendered variants when referring to the Envoy while playing in Polish. Glaedwine and Leoflaed no longer repeat their quest turn in dialog for "Escape Plan". Grysca will now enter his standing animation more reliably. If the player turns in the Luminous Adra to Sapiento de Falva as part of the quest "Precious Light", the player can no longer turn in the adra to Captain Evina Bardatto as well. Improved performance for lighting and raytracing in the Ruinous Cavern in Dawnshore. Reduced light and fog leaking in Runyd's house in Dawnshore. Reduced shadow noise in the first room of the Cistern when playing on XSX Performance mode. Removed gaps in Dawnshore's Shantytown that let players go into unintended areas. The action "Store Items" in Party Stash now uses the correct translation in Polish. The conversation with Tycg in the Aedyran Embassy in Dawnshore will no longer end unexpectedly. The hanging cloth drapes in Dawnshore's Shantytown bar now render in their intended color. The player can no longer fall and get stuck between buildings in the Militia Barracks in Paradis. The player can no longer reach an unintended area behind sewer grates in Dawnshore's Cistern. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near the God Shrine in Dawnshore. The player can no longer reach unintended areas inside buildings in Northern Paradis. The quest "Precious Light" will now use correct quest markers if the player kills without meeting Sapiento de Falva first. The Voice now correctly acknowledges the Player's pronouns during their conversation in The Beyond while playing in Polish. Updated one of Captain Soldis's lines to use the correct formatting and syntax. Ygwulf and the rebels no longer become hostile after in "An Untimely End". Emerald Stair "Quest available" icon for Ranger Verano no longer displays after the quest becomes inaccessible. Adelarro is now using the proper voiceover file during some of his lines. Bounty quests with a singular target will now update upon killing the target instead of having to defeat all the enemies in the encounter. Corrected the description for Death Knight Armor's "Bastion" enchantment in Polish. Corrected the loot list for a chest outside of Naku Tedek that would sometimes have no loot in it. Enemies outside of the Delemgan Queen's chamber will now remain hostile if the player enters combat with her. If the player defeated Old Nuna and collected the bounty trophy but the quest did not progress, they can now return to the bounty location and the quest will update. Improved lighting performance for mushrooms outside of Naku Tedek. SFX of electrified water in Naku Tedek will no longer play after the trap causing it has been disabled. The conversation with Lieutenant Fidelio will no longer end unexpectedly if the player receives the quest "Missing Rangers" from Belenna and speaks with him before finding Adelarro. The name for Fast Travel Beacons now accurately convey their purpose and meaning in Polish. The player can no longer turn in the quest "Nature vs. Nurture" infinitely to Amadio. The player is now able to talk to Ranger Casagrada as part of the quest "Steel Resolve" if the player has progressed past a certain point of the quest "Ancient Soil". Updated syntax for Death Knight Armor's description to display the correct health values. Shatterscarp Added the correct SFX to a lever in the Sand Sea Ruins in Shatterscarp. Camera now correctly centers on the Envoy when certain characters state their opinion about trying drugs. Choosing specific dialogue options when talking to the survivalists near the Ancient Lakebed in Shatterscarp no longer causes the conversation to infinitely loop. Cutscenes that occur during the quest "Shadows of the Past" now have controller vibration haptics. Giatta now uses the correct voiceover file for one of her in-combat remarks. If the player made choices that lead to Chiko's death, they will no longer appear and be alive during the quest Optimized raytracing near the Naku Kubel Approach in Shatterscarp. Overworld changes that occur after certain choices are made during the quest "Shadows of the Past" will no longer appear earlier than intended. Players can no longer get stuck in an unintended area in Shatterscarp's Shrine to Wael. Rotating wheels in Ryngrim's Domain now have the correct SFX. The audio for the sea shanty singers in Thirdborn is now removed if the singers are not present. The conversation with Nameho and Tamamu no longer ends prematurely if the player already completed specific objectives in the quest "Home Sweet Home" before speaking to them for the first time. The NPC Koda in Shatterscarp now has the proper voiceover files for some of his lines. The player can no longer get stuck inside the cliffside rocks near the Sand Sea Ruins in Shatterscarp. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near Aiko's Campsite in Shatterscarp. The player can no longer reach an unintended area near the Pargrun Cache in Shatterscarp. The player can now properly receive their reward if they patiently wait for the guard who has to pee in Thirdborn. Updated Ruanga's character model to resolve continuity errors during the quest "One Last Drink." Galawain’s Tusks Added a conditional to prevent players from talking with a specific NPC about the outcome of the quest Keep History Alive if they have not completed it yet. Added ambient crowd noises to NPC crowds in Solace Keep. Amalia will no longer fail to give you a key to her camp's chest after speaking with her in her camp. Players that have previously run into this problem will receive the key when entering Galawain's Tusks or after loading a save game in Galawain's Tusks. An NPC will no longer walk into the conversation space when talking to Warden Radut in Galawain's Tusks. Fog no longer leaks through the walls of Solace Lava Tubes when playing with Shadow Quality set to Medium. Improved lighting performance in the Southern Warden Tower in Galawain's Tusks. Prevented Councilor Kostya from saying a line of dialogue that should only play for a specific outcome in "Ancient Soil". The conversation with Renato in Galawain's Tusks will no longer trigger earlier than intended. The quest "Boundaries of Antiquity" will now properly complete if the player purified the water after Weeping Willow will now fight back when the player chooses at the end of "Boundaries of Antiquity". Endgame Regions Adjusted camera framing in conversations during the quest Adjusted text positions on the map during the quest Companions will no longer become stuck behind locked doors in The Garden. Corrected formatting of Polish translations during the final region of the game. Improved transition into the ending cutscenes and end slides of the game. The examinable can now be found in The Garden. The player can no longer access a conversation in Galawain's Tusks with Iancu meant for another area of the game. The player will no longer get stuck in an unintended area when jumping off a cliff in The Garden. The player will no longer get stuck in the environment in certain areas during the quest Updated fog in The Garden so that cloud VFX from abilities such as Blizzard and Returning Storm will properly render. UI fixes and Improvements A "new item" indicator will now appear subcategories in the ledger to help guide players to the entries they have not read yet. Added a "Next Tip" prompt for loading screens. Added a visual indicator for progress when uploading saves to Xbox Cloud. Adra Shard now uses the intended item icon. An inventory count for adra will now be displayed when viewing it in a store. Buff icons from Food no longer appear cut off if the player has several buffs active at once. Changing subtitle size will now update immediately if the player is in a conversation. Changing the game's Language in Settings no longer requires the "Apply" prompt to be selected twice. Companion abilities will no longer auto-bind to slots which have already been bound by the player. Disabled the ability to open the ledger when the player is dead or incapacitated briefly during Second Wind. Full-screen tutorials now display properly during a new game, even if they had been seen in a previous save. In the rare event of loading an incompatible save, the Main Menu's Continue button will now display a warning. Marius' abilities now have the correct respec cost. Mouse 4/5 buttons can now be bound to actions. Remove allowance of Emojis during name creation for Xbox. Removed the "removed from inventory" prompt every time the player uses a throwable. Shopkeepers will no longer get rid of items you have sold to them. The description for the food item Saucco now has the correct string in all languages. The HUD will no longer persist when leaving or entering a Party Camp. The input for canceling the throw of a grenade will now properly update to the correct input if the player changed rebound "Interact". The player can no longer continuously spend money on respecing companion points without actually allocating any. The player now retains temporary status effects/buffs from consumables when entering another map. The player will no longer become stuck in a blocking state after opening the Action Radial while blocking. The quest item Medical Supplies now uses the correct item icon. The setting "Use Xbox Saves" is now hidden when playing on an Xbox or via the Xbox app on PC, as using Xbox Saves is always required on these platforms. The text for equipping a weapon from the inventory is no longer cut off when playing with different Text Size settings. Updated Radial Menu for keyboard to use non-customizable keys 1 - 6 keys for binding abilities to the quick action bar. This is to prevent conflicting inputs from happening. Updated text formatting for the descriptions of game difficulty options. Upscaling no longer defaults to DLSS every time the game is launched. Using ESC will now return the player to the previous page in in the Action Radial instead of always closing it. Gameplay Fixes, Improvements, and Balancing A skeleton warrior in Ryngrim's Domain now notices the player if they get shot by the player while reanimating. Added an error message when attempting to save the game during a cutscene. Adra and Awakened Adra's item descriptions no longer claim that players can break these items down into even more Adra. After killing fire blights, their bodies fall inertly to the ground instead of remaining in the air. An item pickup sound now plays when the player acquires an item during a conversation. Attacks from pistols now hit the target more reliably. Captain Evina Bardatto now drops some equipment in addition to money. Clarified that Kithwarder's enchant bonus/penalty applies to Damage Reduction. Boosted Kithwarder's bonus against kith back to 10% (up from 3%). Combat music in the Lava Tubes at Solace Keep now updates correctly when the player stealth attacks an enemy without killing them. Companion's abilities now correctly scale with the tier system Companions no longer play stealth barks when the player is sliding. Companions no longer receive elemental accumulation while incapacitated. Companions with the Shocked status effect no longer electrocute the player when standing near them. Conner Tranton will now always drop his unique boots. Corrected animations seen in third person while the player is idle, running, or sprinting while holding different weapons. Crowd NPCs in Solace Keep will no longer teleport to the center of the world in front of the player. Dawnshore Merchants now stock anywhere between 3-5 lockpicks at a time in their shops, increased from the previous amount of 1-3. Emerald Stair's exploration music now continues to play when loading saves in Naku Tedek and exiting to the overlands. Enemies no longer teleport to Yatzli while she's actively teleporting to a new location in combat. Enemies will no longer get stuck doing nothing after being hit with a knockback attack. Enemy health bars will no longer disappear after the player becomes incapacitated in combat. Essence cost reductions now apply consistently, instead of blocking the player from casting spells despite having sufficient Essence. Fire Blights can now attack players that are currently blocking with a shield while targeting the creature. Ghost summons Huginn and Muninn sound more like ghastly spirits and less like living people. Ghosts' Stamina Drain aura no longer remains after they die. God Shrine Totems at Party Camp now have a green smoky effect if their buff is currently active. Godless chests can now spawn firearms again. This also allows the player to find unique firearms such as Magic Mistol in their intended location. Ice platforms and shock hazards should no longer spawn in midair when using elemental melee weapons over shallow water. If the player falls off a cliff during the second trial in Naku Kubel, they will proceed to die instead of activating Second Wind. If the player performs a Wand Special Attack on an enemy after knocking back and stunning them with Grimoire Snap, Wand Special Attack VFX now properly displays under the enemy. Improved performance for summoned creatures that receive damage over time or disappear on death. Increased Young Bears' resistance to the impact of Power Attacks from Bows, making them less likely to become stunned too often. Into the Fray can now be cancelled into other actions earlier, to create more follow-up/combo possibilities. Lowered the stun threshold on Delemgan Summoners. can no longer get stunned when transitioning between combat phases, and her stun meter now resets upon being healed after transitioning. Lödwyn's sword now uses the correct appearance during her entrance cutscene in Dawnshore. Maegfolc no longer get launched unintentionally high in the air when ragdolled by Pull of Eora Marius's Hunter's Sense ability will now highlight loot from defeated enemies. Offhand one-handed Axes now play the correct Power Attack animations while in playing in third-person. Optimized Amadio's ally buffing abilities to increase performance. Players can now use any ranged weapon to target Magran's Fury Stalks, Eye of Rymrgand Nests, Electric Carnivorous Lilies, Ivy of Forgotten Souls, and Essence Generators. This will allow Wand projectiles to target and home in on them. Players on Story Time difficulty are now twice as resistant to the impact of incoming attacks, making it harder to interrupt the player when they perform actions in combat. Players on Story Time difficulty will now slowly regenerate up to 50% of their maximum Health and Essence while out of combat. Power Slide now affects all enemies except for Maegfolc. Increased the impact of Power Slide Rank 2. Prevented an error that would cause enemies to respawn after they have died. Many enemies that respawned incorrectly due to this issue should be dead when loading an affected save. Prevented auto-saving from occurring when the player is not in a safe position Quality of life improvements to the firearm reloading system. Quest titles no longer linger on the HUD even after being completed. Rank 2 of Returning Storm now correctly displays the duration of the ability in its description. Reduced all Adra costs for upgrading equipment by 1. Reducing VO volume now also reduces the reverb/echo from characters, making them inaudible when setting VO volume to 0. Removed exploit that allowed players to skip summoned character cooldowns by unequipping the item that grants the summon ability Removed the cube that appeared after interacting with certain merchants Resolved inconsistencies in targeting powder kegs and other objects. Second Wind now has no cooldown on Story Time difficulty. Small Spiders, Small Beetles, and Extra Small Beetles no longer have collision during their death animations. The "Press Any Button" prompt now plays a UI sound effect when the player interacts with it. The Disappointer's enchantment "Shared Misery" now correctly applies the debuff to surrounding enemies and no longer stacks multiple times on the same enemy. The Grimoire dry firing animation no longer plays if the player tries to cast a grimoire spell immediately after switching to that grimoire. It now only plays when trying to cast a grimoire spell on cooldown or if the player has insufficient essence. The player can no longer damage a Damaged Maegfolc by hitting where its missing arm would be. The player will now receive an additional talent point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Players with save files past those levels will receive the additional points. The reticle now accurately indicates whether or not Izmalt's Meteoric Apparatus will hit an enemy when the player aims it at them. The Sporeking will no longer respawn if the player already killed it. The underwater audio filter now properly updates when moving the camera above or underwater in Third-Person. The Yellowbands no longer respawn after the player completes their bounty quest. Updated Destul's health bar to correctly display the creature's name. Upgrading Grimoire Mastery no longer reduces the essence cost of spells cast with Grimoires. Upgrading weapons on Hard and Path of the Damned will now require more upgrade materials: Hard: +1 Plant Materials per upgrade, +1 Adra Materials per tier upgrade, Path of the Damned: +2 Plant Materials per upgrade, +2 Plant Materials per tier upgrade Using an ability right after the ability cooldown wears off will always be successful. Wand attacks now properly home towards targets standing in water. Water Beetles' projectiles now properly home towards targets if the beetles attack them while standing in water. When changing Difficulty settings, the player's health and essence now correctly update relative to the newly chosen difficulty. When loading any save data, gamepad vibration now remains turned on if the player already had it enabled. When playing on the difficulty Path of the Damned, enemies now have +20% bonus attack speed. Wildwalker Gloves now have a cooldown, preventing NPCs from getting indefinitely rooted in place by its effects. Xaurips in Fort Northreach will now react to the player shooting down Magran's Fury and killing a xaurip. Yatzli no longer stops following the player while exploring the Abandoned Mine in Shatterscarp. Ygwulf no longer gets stuck in a loop if his target disappears when he teleports at the start of combat. Animation Improvements Adjusted animations of Hasui during the quest "First Contact with the Enemy". Adjusted animations of Iwao during conversation. Adjusted animations of NPCs mouths, emotions, and gestures when talking outside of conversations. Adjusted facial animations in conversation on Lynna in Dawnshore. Eilara's Grimoire no longer has blank pages. Enemies will no longer have their weapon grow in size if they were attacked while a certain animation was being used. Giatta will no longer have an abnormal snapping animation in conversations during the quest Improved animations of the last character encountered during the quest Improved lipsync for Yatzli's recruitment conversation in Thirdborn. Improved lipsync of Hylgard when talking to him during the quest Improved lipsync of Kai when talking to him in Emerald Stair about Improved lipsync of Ranhyr during the quest Lödwyn will no longer disappear after certain cutscenes during the quest "Shadows of the Past". Miscellaneous A facial hair option the player can choose for their Envoy no longer stretches abnormally during cutscenes. Adjusted Fog and lighting in shanty town. Adjusted some godlike features to not clip with the player's head. Adjusted some hairstyles to not clip with the player's head. Blocking with a weapon now uses the correct SFX when playing in first-person. Corrected clothing materials on Merchant Alonya's outfit. Dreamthrall Bears no longer pop in textures when viewed from afar. Enabled Ray Tracing for character hair to improve the appearance of character shadows. Fix visuals in terrain around Lake Lacuna. For windows platform, it now sets the default graphics upscaling value to an upscaling that is supported by the computer it is running on. Improved the heat warping effect of air above lava. In Ryngrim's Domain, the rotating wheel behind Ryngrim no longer changes position when game is out of focus. Modified rendering of background assets in the Garden to improve performance. NPCs in Naku Tedek now have the proper arm appearances. Optimized certain lights in the Garden to improve performance. Optimized Ice Wand AOE visual effects to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Clear Out to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Fan of Flames to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on Jolting Touch to improve performance on higher FPS modes. Optimized the visual effects on Spirit Lance to improve performance. Optimized the visual effects on the weapon 'Emerald Splitter' to improve performance. Returning Storm rank 3, now consistently displays it's visual effects. Summoned Earth Blights now more consistently display their visual effects. The Aurochs-Skin Grimoire now includes the proper sigils on its pages. The screen no longer flickers and stretches when charging an attack with ranged weapons. Yatzli's voiceover no longer abruptly cuts off during a conversation with her in The Garden.

[banter voice="Kana_Rua"] Hellooo! Hello? [/banter]

Hello Developer, I had the only one major issue with Avowed's Journal UI. It hurts my eye trying to read Avowed's Journal with White Background and Black Text. Almost impossible to read and hurting my eye greatly. Can we have a simple patch with the opposite White Text with Black Background for user with TV monitor especially. I try adjusting all possible TV settings,. Brightness/Contrast/Gamma to no valid solution. I cannot enjoy the game without reading the journal properly. Upvote if anyone is facing similar issues. Thanks. rgs Ariobeth.

Just completed my Ultimate run today! What a journey. I used an SC Bloodmage. If anyone is curious here's a link to my playlist-- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAm0AdL2JprBmLIvnUJQa_8nGDaN3QPxR Thanks to ValkyOfApocrypha for his route, that was such an invaluable resource in figuring this out.

Oh, I also saw a massive ad for Avowed in Times Square. It was one of the corner ones that stretches around. Here are a few more good photos of our trip: The Bone Museum in Brooklyn One really good family photo. I don't know how we got the angsty teenager to smile.

Finished Elden Ring. Never thought that would happen, tbh. Some of those endgame bosses were some real bs though and I'm not sure if I would be able to suffer through that again. Kinda sad that the tree keeps burning after the end. Hoped it would stop. Game world looked more pretty before that happened, imo. Went a little deeper into the DLC now. Haven't done much yet except getting my ass kicked by that giant fire thing.

Yo, where is it @Aarik D? Congrats to no.1 on Steam btw.!

Character builds forum has been made - https://forums.obsidian.net/forum/178-avowed-characters-builds-strategies-the-unity-engine-spoiler-warning/ Thanks for letting us know; I'm going to go through and see if there are any existing topics that should be there and move them, but if I miss any let me know.

Getting a bonus in 2 weeks, woo. Maybe I will finally build a new PC

Greetings Envoys, A new patch is now live! This update brings important fixes and improvements, so be sure to update your game when it becomes available. We truly appreciate all of your reports and feedback—it’s invaluable in helping us identify and address issues to improve the game. Your support and patience mean a lot to us, and we want you to know that we’re listening. Our team is committed to making Avowed the best experience possible for everyone, and we will continue working hard to refine and enhance the game based on your input. We have a dedicated team focused on making Avowed better and better, and we’ll have more to announce soon. Stay tuned! If you run into any issues, please let us know at support.obsidian.net—your feedback helps us make the game even better! Thanks for playing, and as always, we appreciate your support! — The Avowed Team Crashes & Major Issues Adjusted character settings so that unkillable characters will now respawn if they mysteriously die, preventing blocked quest progression. Quests & Area Design Loot piles will no longer be placed in unexpected locations when created while the player is far away. Previously affected saved games will now have the loot pile back where the owning character died. Players who killed will no longer experience a dropped conversation when speaking with the leaders of the Living Lands during (Players with affected saves can now simply walk in and out of the meeting space to retrigger the conversation.) Bounty Masters in Dawnshore, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks now correctly allow players to turn in bounties, even if they have acquired more trophy items than expected. Vemas now allows players to turn in Debt of Blood, even if they had already spoken to him upon returning. The player will no longer become stuck with no objectives active during An Untimely End. Fixed an issue where the player could become stuck in the environment near Dehengen's Cottage. Enemy loot will no longer disappear if the player killed Ygwulf and the assassins in the Cistern, saved their game, and then reloaded that save. Ambassador Hylgard can no longer die from drowning in The Strangleroot while following the player, which was preventing him from appearing at the embassy in Paradis. The player will no longer be blocked from finishing Ancient Soil if Fior mes Iverno becomes inaccessible. Systems & Gameplay Improvements Godless chests and sarcophagi now have currency in their loot lists. Upgrade materials (metal, wood, leather) are now more consistently available across stores in each region. Upgrade materials now properly refresh when store stock updates. Autosave frequency has been changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes by default. (This can still be adjusted in player settings.) Autosave slots increased from 3 to 5. The ability Bleeding Cuts now applies Bleed Accumulation more reliably. Logging into Xbox Network on Steam no longer resets the player's selected language setting. Kai is now less likely to teleport inside a wall while using Leap of Daring. Companions now assist in combat more reliably. Visual & Art Fixes Militia Guard patrolling Claviger's Landing now has the correct neck texture. Adjusted health bar position for the enemy Putrid Skeleton Wizard. Fixed jittering of player hair and armor when afflicted by Poison Accumulation. Reduced opacity of a water fountain inside Ondra's Temple. User Interface (UI) & Controls Companion abilities bound to the Quick Slot menu no longer become undone after reloading a save. Added new settings for controller users to adjust gamepad look acceleration strength and ramp-up time. Corrected typos in the Encumbrance tutorial and on the Compiling Shaders screen (now correctly states “a few minutes” instead of “a few moments”). Miscellaneous Launching Avowed with DirectX 11 is now disabled, as the game does not support it. Some players have been using a DirectX 11 launch parameter as a workaround for various crashes, performance problems, or compatibility concerns. However, this can introduce additional problems that we cannot troubleshoot or resolve, including unexpected visual or performance issues. If you're encountering startup crashes, we recommend updating your drivers, verifying your game files, or reaching out to our support team at support.obsidian.net for assistance.

So I did a little test : Casting Blizzard with Common +1 Wand and Common +2 grimoire in hand, and then again but with Fine weapon/grimoire instead. BUT my second weapon set had Fine +0 mace/shield, which probably screwed my test. That second Fine set screwed my test. My armor is also FIne +0. RESULT: The damage was the same versus spiders Tier 2 with 2 pips (so 2.2 you could say). Damage was 15 all the time, even against inanimate objects. UPDATE - NEW RESULT : but by removing my second set of Fine gear, the Common +1 wand and Common +2 grimoire were doing only 5 damage with the same Blizzard spell. This is quite a difference ! Note that I also tried with Common armor, but one set Fine weapon/shield, and my spell damage remained 15, so Fine tier nonetheless. CONCLUSION : evidently, as Patronkus said here, the game looks at your equipped gear (best of both weapon sets) to determine your comparative tier for offence. So even if your grimoire is Common, if you have your best tier equipped in the other weapon set, you are good to go. Armor did not affect my spell damage in this test, but maybe the game does consider it (?).

I was out of town, so I have to be twice as fast downloading to catch up.

That's a lot of downloading for a demo.

Avowed has a much better inventory system than previous Obsidian games. The crafting is also pretty decent. I don't know who handled that, but they deserve accolades.

Trip Report! I took the family to NYC this last week. It was the first time for all of us. My wife just turned 50, and my daughter is going off to college in the fall, so I figured this was a good reason to celebrate with a pretty big trip. It was a stretch financially, but I did my best to make it a special trip. Here are some highlights: Skating in Central Park: We actually packed our ice skates for this trip. An entire suitcase was dedicated to bringing our hockey skates across the country. It was worth it. We got out on the Central Park rink and it was beautiful. The hole park is amazing and I ran through it every day, despite the temperature feeling like it was in the low single digits. Skating with my wife and kids was my favorite moment. Dungeons and Dragons 20-sided Tavern: This was a fun improv show a bit off broadway. It was interactive. You chose whether you were a warrior, rogue, or wizard, and then you used your phone to vote on decisions for the party. My son really enjoyed this one. They were amazing at improv. The Great Gatsby: I'm actually going to talk about the show on a separate thread, since it affected me more dramatically than anything else I've ever watched. But needless to say, the whole family enjoyed it and it was a perfect Broadway show. We stepped out of the matinee show and it was snowing in Manhattan, so it was a pretty magical moment. I still feel like I barely scratched the surface of what Manhattan has to offer. We went to the Bone Museum in Brooklyn, we took the Subway, we visited the 9/11 Memorial. I ate bagels every day. But there was a lot I didn't get to. Hopefully someday we will take another shot at it. Maybe when the weather is better too.

Hi, check this out! We found a big box in my father-in-law's attic and in it - among other stuff - was an old German youth magazine. "Why did he keep this?" we asked ourselves - until we discovered this: Awesome

Hey everyone! Patch 1.2.2 is here, bringing a variety of fixes and improvements based on your feedback. From crash and quest fixes to gameplay tweaks and UI updates, we’ve addressed several community-requested issues to make your experience even better. As always, if you run into any other issues or have feedback, be sure to reach out—we appreciate your support! Community-Requested Fixes Making Crafting and Upgrade System more Approachable Updates to Equipment Tier difference feedback and penalties/bonuses: Changed Tier penalty system from a hard tier to tier system and made it dynamic based on players equipment and the tier (and sub-tier) of the enemy. Tier difference rules now only apply when there is a +/- 4 level gap. Tier II enemies will now play a small reaction animation when struck by lower-tier weapons, instead of not reacting at all. Reduced damage reduction when player weapons are closer in tier to an enemy. Significantly decreased how often companions comment about player needing better armor and/or weapons. Upgrade materials can no longer be sold to merchants to inadvertently make upgrading difficult. We have a longer-term fix involving buying back from merchants in the works. Missing NPCs In specific situations, some NPCs weren’t where they should be. Saving the game, and re-loading will put them back where they should be. We will have a fix soon that fixes the situation completely and doesn’t require a save and load. Quest & Exploration Fixes The brambles in the Delemgan Glade will now vanish when the Adragan Heart is acquired, preventing players from getting stuck inside. Grysca (the apothecary) now correctly speaks with the player to advance An Untimely End, even if they previously encountered a bug with Thalla the Ogre spawning twice. Added a system to respawn key characters when loading a save if they were previously missing and blocking quest progression (including Ambassador Hylgard and The Watcher Runyd). Companion & NPC Improvements Reviving companions in combat now restores them to 75% of their maximum health instead of 50%. Starting health of companions has been increased to help with their viability in combat. Merchants & Economy Merchants at the Dawnshore docks now offer 'Fine' gear in addition to 'Common' gear. Crashes & Major Issues Removed chance to crash when casting Corrosive Siphon on destructible objects. Optimized resource handling of VFX while the game is paused via radial menus to prevent rare leaks and crashes. Quest & Area Design Fixed invisible collision blocking the player in Strangleroot. Prevented players from charging into unintended areas in Strangleroot, avoiding quest progression issues. Enemies now navigate the bridges of the lava tubes more consistently. First Contact with the Enemy quest now progresses correctly if all badges are collected before speaking to Nauki. Players can now complete Steel Resolve after the main quest in Emerald Stair if they had completed enough objectives beforehand. Kowha now responds correctly if the player returns to them after starting One Last Drink. Dialog with Giatta upon leaving Naku Tedek now triggers consistently when loading saves before the conversation. Updated Mapping the Living Lands quest conditions to allow starting from future regions before talking to the quest giver in Dawnshore. Updated A Lady Never Tells quest flow so it correctly completes in the quest log when starting via the courtesan, getting the shipment, then speaking to Giuliana. Governor Ignasi’s option to turn in the spy can now only be triggered once instead of being repeatable. Conversations with leaders in the final area no longer end prematurely when choosing the Let me reconsider option. Made an additional ending option for the leadership conclave available to players who initially backed out but wish to reconsider. Adjusted environment art near the Trantons bounty in Emerald Stair to prevent bounty loot from becoming unobtainable. Previously missing voice-over lines in ambient content now play correctly. Systems & Gameplay Improvements Seeds of Vengeance summons now scale correctly with health and damage. One-handed weapon Parry enchantments now function as intended. Party buffs from the player now correctly target companions only, instead of summoned creatures. Kai no longer gets stuck if using Unbending Defense while mid-air with Leap of Daring. Improved frame rate when rendering damage numbers on multiple enemies at once. Improved item randomization when restocking shops. Blast ability for wands now plays the correct visual and sound effects. Improved logic for animations on companions at the end of combat. Improved transitions on the top of Mt. Forja. Fixed interaction inconsistencies with objects and NPCs obscured by other characters. Controllers no longer rumble when loading a save before the final boss fight. Fixed issues with pond coin interactions. Added error codes for save game failures. Improved where characters are looking during certain conversations. Audio Improvements Cutscene in Naku Kebel now properly plays sound effects. Eating food from the radial menu now provides audio feedback. Increased volume of Woedica’s voiceover audio. Player voice now plays more consistently for abilities with vocal components. Improved transitions between music intensity levels when exploring. Music during the end slides now plays at the intended volume. Visual & Art Fixes Updated Banner Dwarf’s outfit LODs to reduce clipping during animation. Captain Ngunu’s neck is now properly merged with his head. Steel Garrote Soldiers have re-grown their missing hands. Improved shadow quality on Xbox Series X Performance Mode. User Interface (UI) & Controls Cloud transfer prompt is now properly centered on ultrawide displays. Xbox cloud transfer dialog buttons no longer shake rapidly when hovering over the bottom part of the button. Initial splash screens now properly support Chinese characters. Interaction prompts pop up more reliably. Opening a radial menu after leaving and returning to the game no longer triggers the pause menu. Removed unintended English characters in the One Last Drink quest journal for non-English languages. Cloud save UI now defaults to selecting the recommended option.

Long time no see For quite some time I was thinking about an update to CommunityPatch and also a new optional module named: AntiCheese I wasn't active on the forums as I may wished for the last couple of years. That was due to lasting health issues and irl stuff. I am feeling better now, and am thinking of releasing CommunityPatch update and this new module in the upcoming weeks. -------------- Regarding CP v3.0 update there will be a separate thread. While this one will be dedicated to CP.AntiCheese And speaking of it, I was highly inspired by Balance Polishing Mod, so you will see a lot of credits going to @Elric Galad -------------- The list of currently implemented changes is: Cipher: Soul Blade: +10 MaxFocus (gained on kill with melee weapon) will now have a stack limit of 10 (instead of unlimited). This effect will also be cleared on Rest and on Death. Soul Blade: +1 Concentration (gained on kill with melee weapon) will now have a stack limit of 5 (instead of unlimited). This effect will also be cleared on Rest and on Death. Chanter: Each Kill Fed His Fury: +stats effect will be cleared on Rest and on Combat End Druid: Avenging Storm: Effect now applies on "OnDealsDamage" event with weapon attack, insted of "OnScoringGrazeHitOrCriticalHit" with weapon attack. Sync with CP.Basic. Avenging Storm: bonus shock proc will no longer be able to crit. But the spell cast/recovery times are decreased from 4.5s/3.0s to 3.0s/0s. And same for Scroll of Avenging Storm and Heaven's Cacophony helmet. Fighter: Unbending: reworked implementation of self-healing (reason: it was healing for way more than it was supposed to) - what it was supposed to do (according to description): 25% of Damage Taken converted into Healing (Self) for 15.0 sec - what it was doing: for the duration of those 15s, every time fighter would take damage, a 5s ApplyOverTime HoT (Healing over Time) effect. At 10 MIG, 10 INT and no PL bonuses it would heal for 15% at 3s and 10% at 5s. But due to vanilla implementation of ApplyOverTime it would also heal an extra tick at 0s for 15%. Plus everytime a new HoT would be applied, all other Unbending HoTs on fighter would heal for 1 tick. So depending on situation, fighters would get healed for 40-100+% of damage taken - how it will work now: when taking an instance of damage, fighter will get healed for 11% of damage taken 3 times: after 2s (fixed), 4s (fixed) and 6s (fixed). Total 33%. That is both a buff (compared to dev's intention of 25%); and a nerf (compared to dev's implementation of 40-100+%) Unbending Shield: same rework as with Unbending. Total healing received upon taking 1 damage instance will now be: 3 * 11% (at 2s, 4s and 6s from taking damage) Unbending Trunk: same rework as with Unbending. Total healing received upon taking 1 damage instance will now be: 3 * 15% (at 2s, 4s and 6s from taking damage) Monk: Resonant Touch now has a limit of 25 stacks. You will have to release existing stacks in order to build them up again. (same as in CP:Extra) Whispers of the Wind: when used will grant a 1s (fixed time) immunity vs reflex and powder burns attacks Whispers of the Wind: when used will increase the cost of Whispers of the Wind by +2 wounds for 6s (fixed duration). This cost increase stacks 2 times. Paladin: Brand Enemy: DoT duration decreased from Infinite to 120s. But damage increased from 4 Burn per 3.0s to 5 Burn per 3.0s. Additionally, DoT's duration will be extended by 5s, every time the target takes damage from melee weapon attacks. Lay on Hands (Shieldbearer): does no longer provide a 4s buff preventing death. Instead: for 5s, if the allied target becomes Near Death, a 150pts damage shield is applied for 5s (credit goes to Elric Galad) Priest: Barring Death Door: does no longer provide an effect preventing death. Instead: the next time (no time limit for this part) the target becomes Near Death, a 300 pts damage shield is applied for 12s (the effect is less strong, but is longer and can be cast preventively). (credit goes to Elric Galad) Salvation of Time: does no longer increase duration of beneficial effects on target by flat 10s. Instead: it halves the ellapsing speed of buffs for 24s fixed (not benefitting from INT and PL) Basically adds up to 12s to effect' durations but: - Now also applies to effects cast after it (especially useful for Vanishing Strikes...) - Useless to cast several times in a row - The most important: now a single effect cannot have it's duration more than doubled - It is still a very good spell, even better than before, but it is now impossible to abuse by combining it with Brilliant and the like; and all other buffs will also have to be re-cast again at some point (credit goes to Elric Galad) Rogue: Gouging Strike: DoT duration decreased from Infinite to 120s. DoT's duration will be extended by 5s, every time the target takes damage from melee weapon attacks. Wizard: Wall of Draining: AffectedTargetType changed from All to Hostile (that's mostly visual effect) (credit goes to ElricGalad) Wall of Draining: instead of draining 1s and extending buffs on self by 1s per tick; wall will now drain 2s from enemy, and extend buffs on self by 0.5s per tick (per affected enemy). (same as in BalancePolishingMod) Wall of Draining: application prerequisite changed from [HasBeneficialEffectWithDuration GreaterThan 0s] to {[HasBeneficialEffectWithDuration GreaterThan 1s] AND [HasBeneficialEffectWithDuration LessThan 9999s]}. Reason: it was trying to drain from some infinite effects Minor Grimoire Imprint: removed this spell from grimoires. And substituted with Ironskin or Minor Arcane Reflection. Reason: the stolen spells would not expire, if gained by casting Minor Grimoire Imprint from a grimoire and switching to another grimoire Major Grimoire Imprint: removed this spell from grimoires. And substituted with Wilting Wind or Minoletta's Piercing Sigil. Reason: same as above Concelhauts Draining Touch: removed this spell from grimoires. And substituted with Noxius Burst, Arcane Dampener or Minolleta's Bounding Missiles. Reason: same as above General: Brilliant: Now only restores spell Slot up to Tier 3/6/9 for Priests, Wizards and Druids. The maximum regenerated tier is cycling : Tier 3 after 3s, Tier 6 ater 9s, Tier 9 after 15s and so on until the end of the effect. Brilliant does not restore ressource anymore before 3s for all classes. (credit goes to Elric Galad for implementation) Dawnstar Blessing: changed from +50% Healing Given, to +55% which decreases by 5% for every character level past lvl 4 until it reaches +15% at lvl 12; and it remains +15% after that. It will still be cleared upon Rest. Powder Burns (blunderbuss modal): will no longer fire twice when used with mortars. (credit goes to Elric Galad) Items: - Boltcatchers: Storm Blows proc will no longer be able to crit. Proc damage increased from 10-15 to 15-25 to compensate for the nerf. - Deltro's Cage Helm: - Conduit will no longer proc out of combat - Conduit effect will be cleared on Rest and on Combat End - The helm will now passively grant +1 Perception, to slightly compensate for the nerf - Lover's Embrace: True Love's Kiss DoT duration decreased from Infinite to 120s. But damage increased from 10 Raw per 6.0s to 12 Raw per 6.0s - Magnificent Escape Cloak: bonus Deflection and immunity to Engagement effects will now be cleared on Rest and on Combat End - Potion of Final Stand: - duration changed from 6s to 18s Unadjusted (meaning it cannot be extended by player stats) - both effects ("cannot die" and "+25% bonus damage") will be also cleared on Rest and on Combat End - a character can use it only once per encounter - Protective Eothasian Charm: Darkest Before Dawn will now provide increased damage reduction (-30% damage taken, up from -25%), but it's effects will be cleared on Rest and on Combat End - Rakhan Field Boots: No Quarter can be used only on hostile targets now (as in CP.Extra). They also can no longer target self. - Shroud of the Phantasm: Mind Over Matter can trigger only from hostile attacks now (as in CP.Extra) - Shroud of the Phantasm: Mind Over Matter effect will now be cleared on Rest and on Combat End. But the proc chance increased from 1% to 1.5% TODO: can only trigger in combat Weapons: - Lethandra's Devotion: Pale Light will no longer provide any healing during first 3s after equipping the shield. Reason: it could be abused using behaviour scripts to rapidly heal the whole party. - Sasha's Singing Scimitar: Prelude and it's upgrades will no longer cumulatively decrease remaining recovery times on repeated re-equip. Reason: it could be abused using behaviour scripts to drastically decrease remaining recoveries on chanter and his party members. - Thundercrack: Charged Field will no longer cumulatively increase remaining recovery times on repeated re-equip. Reason: it could be abused using behaviour scripts and halt enemies actions for indefinite period of time. - Hand Mortar: Blinding Smoke (disorienting attack) will not be able to crit anymore - Scordeo's Edge: Double Strike will no longer trigger on hits from any source, but only on those that are originated from Scordeo's Edge itself. (for reference: its upgrades Blade Cascade and Tempest already trigger only from Scordeo's Edge attacks in vanilla) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Scordeo's Edge: Blade Cascade duration type changed to "Unadjasted" (meaning it cannot be extended by player stats) - Scordeo's Edge: Blade Cascade application behaviour changed from "UseLongerDurationIfAlreadyApplied" to "DontApplyIfAlreadyApplied" - Scordeo's Edge: Blade Cascade proc effect will now be cleared on Rest and on Combat End - Grave Calling: Frosted Edge bonus lash effect will now be cleared on Rest and on Combat End. - Grave Calling: Frozen Edge bonus lash effect will now be cleared on Rest and on Combat End. - Saru-Sichr: it's special DoT procs (Poison Dipped, Paralytic, Death Sentence) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: to avoid crit-chain with Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming, etc) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Effort: it's status effect (Hemorrhaging) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: same as above) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Mohara Taga: it's status effect (Red Flag Flying) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: same as above) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Sanguine: it's status effect (Weeping Wounds) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: same as above) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Distraho: it's status effect (Menace) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: same as above) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Wicked Beast: it's status effects (Bad Dog, Hounding) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: same as above) (credit goes to Elric Galad) - Ball and Chain: it's status effects (Crushing Yoke, Subjugation, Shackles) will not be able to crit anymore (reason: same as above) (credit goes to Elric Galad) Misc: - Auranic Megaboss now gets back a spell slot every 12s for the duration of the fight, in order to prevent the strat via starvation (credit goes to Elric Galad)

I take offense to that sir, I have not been trained!

One of those days where one realizes that the vast majority of people working in IT are basically naught but trained monkeys.

Why don't the women who are scared of rape and murder simply declare themselves to be transgender men? Problem solved.

Andrea Dworkin might have been onto something when she said the right wing conservatives (men and women alike) define womanhood through the ability to whelp. Since trans women are by definition unable to do so, they're basically a threat to the definition of womanhood, and through that, women - wich means for the conservative men that they threatened their women, who no one else is allowed to threaten their women but themselves. That's a bit like why conservative Christians dislike Muslims even though they basically want the same thing: for the womanfolk to stay at home to cook, whelp and rear their children. Since they cannot deal with the cognitive dissonance, they don't even notice or double down on their viewpoints. Hilariously exemplified in one of the interviews I saw with an avid MAGA cultist who stated, on camera, that he's with President Trump on the Muslim ban, because Muslims don't respect American women. All the while wearing a t-shirt with Hillary Clinton's likeness on it, reading: TRUMP THAT BITCH. Meanwhile anti-trans thought also finds purchase in feminist circles because they're seen as men threatening what they fought for. This is history repeating itself insofar as feminists originally tried to exclude lesbians because they were seen as a bunch of butch dykes and feminists did not want women who look and behave more like men than women to be part of their group. Ultimately, even modern feminists still struggle to define womanhood outside of what tradition dictates. Sure, the more radical elements have their girl bosses, which are basically women who adopted toxic masculinity, which is an incredibly self-defeating solution for a movement of a gender suffering immensely from toxic masculinity, hence the rise of various counter-definitions (including the tradwife, which loops neatly back to traditional role models). Then you have, of course, the elements who chafe under homophobia no longer being acceptable in modern society and simply supplanted theirs with transphobia. That is why you get exactly the same arguments against transgenders as there were against homosexuals (and lesbians). Verbatim, even, at times. They make all our children gay when they're allowed to teach. They pollute the children's minds, making them want to transition. Now that we have accepted homosexuality, there's suddenly so many of them. Now that transgenderism gains acceptance, people identifying transgender suddenly tripled. Now you might want to say: but, but, but @majestic, you only talked about trans women, what about the trans men? Yeah, what about them. They get caught in all the negativity and anti-trans legislation, but let's be real, it's the trans women who are the targets. They tickle fears of being trapped in conservative men, they are visible reminders of the self-loathing of conservative men who wank to shemale porn and are ashamed of it, they're seen as a threat for women and they're the targets of feminists who see them as encroaching on what little they can agree on that defines a woman, and by extension, that also garners the attention of the moderates. I mean, honestly, if a lot of well known women like J.K. Rowling think that trans women are just men wanting access to women's toilets and locker rooms to rape them, there just might be something to it, no? Meanwhile the trans men, they're seen as what? Taking the girl boss a little too far? At worst, they're targets of more radical feminists who see them as traitors to their gender.

Well, I won't expect anything then I reported the bugs in the official patch thread, both here and on Steam, I hope Obsidian sees it as with some bugs reported in this last patch and at least put solution to the bugs I could consider more serious, the DoT related ones at least.

Dear Obsidian, I have a suggestion on how to make the combat a bit more flexible. While playing Avowed I found that as much as ther is exciting freedom in combining your weapons and magic, there is no possibility to parry with any dual weapon scenario (only sowrd and board and two handers). Please consider adding a seperate parry button/action, so that every melee weapon, regardless of secondary is able to parry. You have character abilities dedicated to this function, it is just such a shame it is so restrictive at the moment. I am imagining a dagger+sword rogue or sword+pistol pirate and it would be great if such setups would allow for parry and not only dodge as defensive non-magical option. On other note, I really enjoy your game so far, thanks and keep up the good work !!

I couldn't resist.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/04/congress/gop-town-halls-richard-hudson-00210024 No more in-person town halls, NRCC chief tells House Republicans "If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you" - JD Vance I didn't understood at first that he was speaking about his own government

I made it a bit further than this point and mine eventually bugged where I cannot progress either.

Isn't that exactly what Macron wants, to make clear to the rest of the world (and especially Europe) that the United States is lost to them, will not help if they actually need it? I feel like that's something he's been trying to accomplish for years at this point, even during the Biden administration. Felt like that was a pretty good demonstration.

i have a similar gripe about Marius. You can upgrade Shadow Step so that it basically instakills stunned enemies. When it works it's great! But he'll just waste it on un-stunned enemies or not use it when there are stunned enemies! I tried disabling the setting for companions to use their abilities themselves, but this added way more radial micromanagement than I enjoyed. Other allies have similar problems, but it's less of a big deal w/ e.g. Kai's taunt, because at least he's still taunting. But Shadow Step has an extremely looooong cooldown and it's only really effective if it's smartly targeted! (Same goes for another upgrade that lets it do more damage the less health the target has) I wish there were slightly better smarts for companions, or at least have a system where if I put an ability on my hotkeys that they stop using it automatically.

Thank you everyone for putting in the work to "decipher" this system! I don't think I'd have ever figured out myself. I am an older cRPG player and for me the idea that the power of my mage's spell depends on the quality of any of her equipment is just weird. They could have made it at least dependent on mage items, like grimoires, that would make a bit more sense.

This is what annoys me the most. I tested a bit of dual wield / empty single wield as a melee ranger. - Benefit of dual wield: you can spam faster attacks by alternating between both buttons. Works with crit builds. - Disadvantage of dual wield. No parry, and attack combo easier loses benefits. So you rely on dodge and Shadowing Beyond. For single wield there is no benefit if using an empty offhand. They dropped the ball on this part. You might as well use a shield. IIRC Deadfire and POE1 gave you higher crit change if off-hand was empty.

Please make pillars of eternity 3 please ::/(( -anilerdmsrk

There were no NATO troops (except during annual Rapid Trident exercise which has organized since 2013, when about 6000 troops from NATO and African countries trained with Ukraine's troops for a week) before current invasion and even possibility for NATO troops were close to zero and Ukraine joining NATO was even more unlikely. Invasion itself made idea of NATO troops in Ukraine a possibility that could actually happen. So I don't see that would prevent subsequent ones as blocking NATO troops was not one of the goals that Russia tries to achieve with the invasion. Invasion made it possible that Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Support for NATO in Finland was in 2018 less than 23%, 2021 it was 26%, in 2022 after Russia started their invasion it jumped to over 70%. In January 2022 less than 40% of members of Finnish parliament supported joining NATO, in March support had jumped to over 90%. Finnish Government Defence Report from 2021 estimated that NATO support in Finland could reach 50% in 2040 if Russia continues its power politics and Russian parliament members continue to threated Finland. So if Russia didn't want NATO to expand, they choose option that caused opposite effect, quite predictably Russia warned against NATO deploying troops in Ukraine in 2021 and said that is their red line, but at that time Russia itself was already moving its troops to Ukraine's border for "military exercise" which ended as invasion to Ukraine in 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56616778 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/2/russia-warns-nato-against-troop-deployment-to-ukraine https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/putin-says-nato-troops-in-ukraine-would-be-a-red-line-for-moscow Although Ukraine wanted NATO to hasten its membership because it feared that Russia may invade https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/06/ukraine-pressures-nato-for-membership-as-russia-amasses-troops-at-border Russia was also against NATO countries supplying Ukraine https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/22/russia-accuses-west-of-fuelling-hysteria-over-ukraine-tensions https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/30/russia-will-act-if-nato-countries-cross-ukraine-red-lines-putin-says Although Russia did say that they brough troops to Ukraine borders as response against non specified NATO threats https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/12/g7-calls-on-russia-to-cease-provocations-on-ukraine-border There was also speculation that everything has been just to increase gas prices in Europe and get approval for Nord Stream 2 https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-shmyhal-nato-russia/

please make pillars of eternity 3 start kickstarter maybe? -Anıl Erdem Sarak

@Aarik D, @Shyla - would it be possible to create a subforum for Avowed builds, game mechanics etc. like we have them for PoE, Deadfire and Outer Worlds?

Rarely am I more disappointed in my country. Especially my town is something like 40% AfD, it's driving me mad. The only good thing is that AfD stays < 25%, since this means they can't do that much, especially nothing important. Also BSW (the most obvious Putin puppet) is below 5%, which is another good news. The future looks grim. AfD gained over 10% in votes. Next election will probably seal the deal and then after 90something years, we finally have Nazis back in the government. Or the coalition building will fail and CDU will work together with the AfD after all. Remember-- just because they say that they won't work with them, doesn't mean they will stay true to their words. I don't trust any of those snakes. That said, bringing back the CDU is just stupid. They had 16 years with Merkel and they did nothing. In big parts it's their fault that we are where we are now. I'm not blaming SPD, they didn't really had time to do stuff. Personally I would have given them more, just to see what happens.

My plan was to build a Ranger mostly but with the Wizard's Blackbow and Spirit of Decay and so on. Unfortunately my progression in the game is veeery slow so far. The lack of info/explanation/numbers is not helping. I would like a mod that added all that useful info (combat log etc.).

I can't complete the main quest because even though I have found the Watcher and spoken to them something must have happened because I can finish the quest at any time I talk to them I get generic responses not an actual talk

Oh yeah, definitely a lack of skill games way back. By the way, I don't consider KCD as such. Warhorse claimed they attracted totally non-gamers with the first game already. And those adapted far better to the unusual design decisions than the gamers: E.g. the saving system, eating, drinking, sleeping, fighting... It's all about conditioning. I mean, back in the day, we used to play games without markers, auto-maps and with actual puzzles when we were kids. And had no problem whatsoever with that. Every game was kinda like that. But since a large part of it is simply conditioning: There's market opportunity for (almost) anything. With so many games in that space playing increasingly alike, perhaps moreso than ever. It needs to be packaged properly, naturally... Plus, if you're not fully committing to something, you risk making completely bland product that may try hard to please everyone, but doesn't really wow anybody. Eventually, you're going to alienate a few people anyhow no matter what you're doing. For all the talk about how much of a hardcore sim KCD would be, at the core it's actually quite a cinematic Hollywood type of affair full of drama and even genuine laughs -- the survival/sim elements are fairly light. Think Mafia, Vavra's first gig as a writer / director. There's quite a lot of that in there still. I was actually underwhelmed initially when I went into the first game kinda blind back then. I expected something way different. Only when I'd finished the long prologue and the game opened up, did I start to really warm up to it.

I've only just finished the tutorial zone and arrived at the first town. Early observations: 1) The third-person camera feels like a bit of an afterthought in that it exposes the janky player character animations. Jumping looks weird, and the dodging animation ...well, there isn't really a dodging animation and you just magically slide around. But it remains my preference because I don't buy into the belief that first-person cameras are more immersive. At least, not while my viewport is limited to a narrow 16:9 window. 2) I like that so far I don't seem to be expected to loot random bodies and containers, but the flipside of this is that I hate that breaking random crates and pots is rewarded. I'm going to refuse to keep doing it, and the opportunity cost based on what I've seen so far doesn't seem to be particularly large. 3) I welcome the return of stealth kills, though it's weird that they relate it to some mystical godlike power instead of something more mundane. However it's ridiculous that performing one automatically cancels stealth, and you have to always remember to manually re-crouch after each kill.

I wish i could play Avowed, because i don't have an xbox or a gaming pc, but i am playing grounded for the first time. It's so good! I got it on switch, and it's like 500p or something but it looks surprisingly alright and plays at like 30 fps so it's not a bad experience. It's the perfect portable game. I don't know what i was expecting and why it took me so long to play, but it feels like good obsidian and has the potential to be my favourite survival game ever. I hope microsoft continues their marriage with nintendo on the switch 2, because if it's on the level ps4 pro or something it will be able to handle most obsidian games semi decently.

So Avowed. First impressions are mixed. Gameplay is indeed pretty good, and I like exploration so far. Writing has me increasingly worried. Conversation trees seem to be well below Obsidian's standard - there is a rather blatant "NPC has same response recorded for all of the choices offered to you", and character's just don't feel right so far. They speak casually, which is at odds with Avowed still being just of a lore whore as PoEs were. I also find NPCs to speak more to the player than a character. Multiple NPCs keep talking to the Envoy of Aedyr things they probably should keep to themselves. In first instance I thought it might be characterisation, but it keeps happening, so it seems like it's more of an exposition dump for the player, rather than a believable in-world interaction. Edit. So pwetty though

I thought they said Deadfire kept selling and by now has sold a good amount of copies. Personally I like poe2 a lot more than poe1. However, if they ever do a poe3, I really hope it will have some slight pirate or at least spanish colonial feeling again.

Of course he was. Trump never made it a secret that he wanted to go after his enemies. The only ones shocked about this are the "he is just joking!"-crowd.

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) & Vampire Wars (1990). Right, here's my vampire anime tier list so far: A (I love this!). Vampire Princess Miyu B. Vampire Hunter D C (I like this!). N/A D. Vampire in the Garden, Darkness of the Sea and Shadow of the Moon E (This is fine). Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (1993), Mermaid Forest F. Blood: The Last Vampire, The Laughing Target, Mermaid's Scar G (Meh). JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2000) H. N/A I (I dislike this). Castlevania, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge J. N/A K (I hate this). Vampire Wars ... Z (This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my whole life). Hellsing Ultimate Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

That's two million in two weeks. Even Ubisoft would have been pretty happy with that on some of their more recent underperformers. Doubly so if they had the comparably modest budget of KCD II... Embracer aren't minors either, after all. As said, to me this only confirms what's been happening for the past+ decade. The model of ever infusing more simple action into RPGs and simplifying RPG elements down has been pushed to its limits -- the Bioware/Bethesda school, basically. By now these games are competing with all the action/adventure type of games that have been including RPG-lite elements since The Witcher 3 hit it big. That doesn't mean similar projects are destined to underperform. That only means you need an absolutely stellar game and/or a wholly unique take on the form to still stand out from the crowd. Bluntly put, Veilguard would have had it even harder had it neither had a Bioware nor a Dragon Age logo attached. Meanwhile, studios such as FromSoft, Larian or Warhorse first thrived in their own niches. The games they started making were considered too risky for any of the industry players. "We're an industry about instant gratification", they would have told FromSoftware. "Well there's dungeons, kinda. But where are the dragons?" That's what they would have asked Warhorse. "Turn-based tactical combat? Table-top simulations? In the 2000s? Go make this more like Diablo", they'd actually told Larian since their early days. "All of you guys don't fit in, sorry." Then all of these grew, both in studio size and target audiences. In parts because there's far more people playing video games now than ever, which also means a broader range in taste. And then they all could offer experiences that, on their levels of production, see no direct competition whatsoever. (Well, Soulslikes are a thing, mind you. But From are still considered the "Originals". And what better promotion is it to have an entire genre tag named after your own product? Jackpot, baby!)

Almost done with Deadfire. Funny, I already stumbled over 2 bugs in the game... back when I played it the first time (and a second time right after), I didn't notice any bugs at all. Game still looks great. I just love how my people look like. Just damn Serafen won't give me his stupid hat. I didn't had him in my party for a big part of the beginning, because for once I wanted to use different party members, but now I'm unable to improve my standing with him... I really want to replace him with someone else again, BUT I NEED THIS HAT. GIVE IT TO ME SERAFEN, GIVE IT TO ME. REEEEEE. You know, I feel like the biggest issue with the game are all the tiny islands. IMO, less islands, but a more connected feeling would have worked out much better. Really hate it to go down the islands like a checklist and at best they have a 1 screen mini-dungeon with some mobs in them. It feels cheap and lazy even though it isn't... it's just too disconnected from the rest. Oh yeah, another thing... this time I did not upgrade my ship at all and... I'm completely fine. Maybe things got changed with patches later? Could swear that I had A LOT more sea battles back in release days. Now I only have them if I initiate them myself.